dy for any crime.

Under natural conditions his audacity can be no less. On the contrary,
the familiar spots, freedom of movement, unlimited space and his
beloved salt air excite the warrior to yet greater feats of daring.

He has dug himself a refuge in the sand, with a wide, crumbling mouth.
This is not so that he may, like the Ant-lion, wait at the bottom of
his funnel for the passing of a victim which stumbles on the shifting
slope and rolls into the pit. The Scarites disdains these petty
poachers' methods, these fowlers' snares; he prefers a run across
country.

His long trails on the sand tell us of nocturnal rounds in search of
big game, often the Pimelia, sometimes the Half-spotted Scarab.[5] The
find is not consumed on the spot. To enjoy it at his ease, he needs
the peaceful darkness of the underground manor; and so the captive,
seized by one leg with the pincers, is forcibly dragged along the
ground.

[Footnote 5: Cf. _The Sacred Beetle and Others_: chaps. ii. and vii.--
_Translator's Note_.]

If no precautions were taken, the introduction of the victim into the
burrow would be impracticable, with a huge quarry offering a desperate
resistance. But the entrance to the tunnel is a wide crater, with
crumbling walls. However large he be, the captive, tugged from below,
enters and tumbles into the pit. The crumbling rubbish immediately
buries him and paralyses his movements. The thing is done. The bandit
now proceeds to close his door and empty his prey's belly.

CHAPTER XIV
THE SIMULATION OF DEATH

The first insect that we will put to the question is that audacious
disemboweller, the savage Scarites. To provoke his state of inertia is
a very simple matter: I handle him for a moment, rolling him between
my fingers; better still, I drop him on the table, twice or thrice in
succession, from a small height. When the shock due to the fall has
been administered and, if need be, repeated, I turn the insect on its
back.

This is enough: the prostrate Beetle no longer stirs, lies as though
dead. The legs are folded on the belly, the antennae extended like the
arms of a cross, the pincers open. A watch beside me tells me the
exact minute of the beginning and the end of the experiment. Nothing
remains but to wait and especially to arm one's self with patience,
for the insect's immobility lasts long enough to become tedious to the
observer watching for something to happen.

The duration of the lifeless po